Friday morning rolled around, Wes wanted to leave behind a tank top at the Super 8 check out desk for our new found buddies from Canada that were still staying there. This oddly became futile because they said they never got it. The front desk said they left it in their room. Lies from the Super 8 in Buttonwillow Junction.
We enjoyed yet another Build Your Own Slam at Denny's and headed back on the road toward Oakland. In the midst of our drive through the 100 degree temperatures there was one small incident. Cruising down the road at 70 mph I was following behind a a pick up with a small trailer. I had the intention of passing him. Doug was following close behind me. As I was just about to get over the truck in front of me moved over too. Right in the middle of the road was a semi tire. I had a small moment of panic and weaved into the left lane, however in the process I managed to hit the horn at the same time. Which brought hours of amusement for Wes who was riding with me on this leg. The panicked swerve and simultaneous beep.
The remainder of the drive was pretty uneventful outside of traffic once we hit Oakland around 5pm. We had got word that it might be an early show. Something like 6 or 7pm. We hustled over to Eli's Mile High Club and found that they were equally confused about start time as we were.
We realized that this is not the best part of Oakland. Eli's is located just outside of the downtown district on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. As we were walking in there was a crazy lady who was yelling about a lot of things just outside the front door of the club. As Wes and I approached she sort directed her yelling in our direction. I looked at Wes and said "I think she just called us faggots." Which she did. Wes replied, "She was yelling long before we got here and probably long after we leave. Chances are we won't be the only ones."
True enough. I saw her across the street later that night still commenting on the sexuality of others.
We talked to the bartender about a near by place to stay and he suggested a place called the Maya Motel. We headed over there to see if we could get a room. It was in what looked to be a decent neighborhood, but it was a motel with weekly rates and only single rooms. We opted to pass. We went down another road that seemed to have a lot of hotels on it. Passing by several who's parking lots weren't very well equipped for the truck and trailer. We stopped to get our bearings as Wes opted to try his phone for a nearby Motel 6. There were a couple pretty close by, but all were booked. While Wes was trying to figure this out Doug was chatting to some fella who happen to be waiting for his bus. The guy's input was that he wouldn't stay anywhere close to that area. By his figuring we would come out in the morning to a truck with no trailer. So that clinched it. 20 miles north in a town called San Rafael was a Motel 6 with plenty of rooms. That was it. Wes called and secured 2 rooms.
We headed back to the club and bellied up to the bar. Happy hour Hamms for a $1.50. Not to shabby. We all grabbed a bite. Some of us made better choices than other in our bar food selection. Wes and Lee opted for the chicken strip basket... Blackened (burnt). We loaded in and set up. At this point none of the other bands were there. The sound guy was and he said he was just filling in for the regular guy. We meandered about until we got an accurate start time. 9pm. The sound guy only had 1 operational mic, so once again we had to put ours to use.
Eli's is an interesting club. Definitely the crustiest of crusty punk clubs. Everyone was really nice though. We sat out on the back patio for awhile. A patio reminiscent of something out of Sanford and Son. Finally the 2 of the other bands showed up. Tricky Monk and The Ding Dings and Death Ray. Still no sign of Death Wish V and not entirely certain whether they were going to show. We had hit the road before I got final confirmation from them.
The original line up for the show was suppose to be Get Dead, Tricky Monk and The Ding Dings and us. Well, Get Dead had to cancel, they had gotten a show here in Seattle with the Cromags. They suggested Death Wish V. I didn't hear anything from them so contacted Tricky Monk to see if they had someone to fill the slot. They said they would get a band they knew called Death Ray. I contacted Death Wish V to see what had happened there and they had no idea what I was talking about. When we left that's what I knew. When we got down there and saw the list Tricky Monk, Death Ray and Death Wish V were all on the bill. I thought well cool. Everything worked out.
Well, we went on and the crowd seemed to like us, but they definitely weren't there for us. The sound guy, not being familiar with the system, struggled all throughout our set. Feedback, mics cutting out and so on. Death Ray went on next and this band was a very strange entity. A large bass cab in between 2 guys playing playing prerecorded drum and bass lines with some synth mixed in. The 2 guys had guitars. They played kind of a pop punk kind of music style. But it seemed more of a parody. I wasn't sure what to make of them. They had bizarre on stage antics, like one of the guys cutting off his clothes with scissors through the song. Then went through there set and they guy who had cut his clothes off was wearing speedos with some sort of apparatus built into it. He then proceed to light his junk on fire and it would act as a weird blowtorch. Not to mention it stank.
Tricky Monk and The Ding Dings went on next. They are very talented band that I guess had relocated to the Bay Area from somewhere back east. Again a relatively pop punk based band with a little more edge to them. They put on a great set. But unfortunately they played a little too long. The door man asked them to wrap things up with their last song and they rolled into 2 or 3 songs which had the door man pissed and yelling and kicking chairs. Made for a very uncomfortable room all of a sudden.
Death Wish V at this point was just showing up. It was roughly around 11pm. We chatted with them a little outside. Nice enough guys, but we just couldn't stick around any longer. We had to hit the road to secure our rooms at the Motel 6. Wish we could have stayed for their set.
We hit the road on our way to San Rafael. Wes was navigating via his phone. And he mentioned a partial toll. We had no idea what that meant. Either there was a toll or there wasn't. What's with the partial thing? Well, there was a toll. $5 for the car and $10 for the truck and trailer.
We finally got to the motel and check in. Of course we decide we needed to go get some beer and food. So we walked up the road to an AM/PM and got the beer part taken care of. Wes decided that Burger King sounded good. The dining room was closed. So Wes decided to try going through the drive through. So on foot he waited in line as Lee and I watched speculating that this would never work. But once again Wes' gift of gab won the day. He managed to get our full order walking up through the drive thru.
It was oddly cold that night as we walked back to the motel. We got back and let Doug, who had hit the hay already, know that we had got him a burger. He came over straight away. Once again as the glamorous rockstars we are sat in our Motel 6 room, eating Whoppers, drinking cheap beer and watching Married With Children. Yup this is the life...
Coming up... Johnny B's in Medford!
adam
WCG
No comments:
Post a Comment